As network communications among the multiple computing devices have become ubiquitous, a greater quantity of services have been made available via such network communications. For example, the growth of the Internet and the World Wide Web has caused websites and other content servers to transform from merely presenting informational content to now offering more complex and dynamic services, such as interactive services that can be based on substantial computation by one or more computing devices hosting such services.
Together with the greater computational burden shouldered by server computing devices that host such services, the programming to create and maintain such services has likewise increased. While a simple informational content presentation service can be created within a relatively short amount of time by even one inexperienced programmer, modern dynamic and interactive services can require teams of programmers years to develop and debug.
Unfortunately, while the investment in such complex network-based services can be substantial, it can also be subject to the ephemeral nature of a modern, network-centric business environment. For example, network-based services can be bought and sold among various corporations, since, at least in theory, such acquisitions can be performed more efficiently than the acquisitions of a more traditional, human resource-intensive, operation. However, while the core services that are being offered can remain the same, often the purchasing corporation wishes for such services to be presented in accordance with the look and feel commensurate with other network presences of such a corporation, or may wish that such services be presented within the context of existing network-based infrastructure already established by the purchasing corporation. Even if the network-based services remain owned by the same corporation, there may still arise business decisions that impact, not the core services themselves, but rather peripheral aspects of the presentation of such services to end-users. For example, the network-based services can be rebranded or bundled with a different collection of services. In either case, the look and feel, and, indeed, the peripheral operation of the network-based services may need to be changed, which can result in further substantial investment in recoding the services.